


Moonlit Masquerade: Sandcasltes

by Rohad



Series: Moonlit Masquerade [6]
Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Lumity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:00:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26760280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rohad/pseuds/Rohad
Summary: Amity is in for a surprise.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda
Series: Moonlit Masquerade [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1935769
Comments: 59
Kudos: 790
Collections: We_Love_Lumity





	1. Chapter 1

It’s Monday after lunch and Luz is trying to coerce her locker into spitting out her books. Beast keeping doesn’t usually require any, it’s more hands on learning, like how to properly feed a baby chimera or how to pull infected or molting scales of a hydra without the other heads eating you. Her afternoon potions class on the other hand requires several, it's arguably one of the more technical and dangerous tracks… in regards to consequences for the user if you mess up anyway. Or in some cases, the whole class. It wasn’t uncommon for the potions hall to be evacuated because someone mixed something with the wrong thing. 

“Just give me the book!” She shakes her fists at the creature as it glares down at her, growling. She growls back and the creature only grumbles at her before it finally opens its mouth and she pulls the book out with a yank and gives it the stink eye.

“Give that locker what for!”

“You sure showed it.” A pair of familiar voices laugh and Luz turns to find the Blight twins standing behind her grinning.

“Oh, hey guys, what’s up?” She knows the twins well enough after two months of dating their sister that they are here for a reason. Everything they do has a purpose, even if that purpose is just to get a laugh or mercilessly tease Amity.

“It’s about Amity,” Emira starts.

“We need your help,” Edric finishes, and both twins look so uncharacteristically serious that her mind jumps to the worst possible conclusions. 

“What is it, what’s wrong!?” She drops her book, eyes wide as they switch wildly between the two older teens. The twins jerk, realizing that maybe they came off a little too serious, but for once they are serious. 

“Whoa, whoa, nothing is wrong.” Emira holds up her hands to calm her. 

“Yeah, everything is fine.” Edric sets a reassuring hand on her shoulder. 

“You looked so serious, you scared me…” Luz holds a hand over her rapidly beating heart. It was too early in the week for this. Usually something terrifying didn’t happen until at least Wednesday…

“Sorry,” Edric chuckles. “This is serious, just not…,” he trails off.

“The life threatening kind of serious you’re used to getting yourself into…,” Emira finishes for him with a laugh.

“Oh, well, what is it?”

“Well, you know this Saturday is Mittens birthday…," Edric starts.

“What!?” Luz is panicked again, but now for a very different reason. “I didn’t know this weekend was her birthday!” 

“Really?” the twins ask in unison. 

“She’s never said anything…” Luz’s words are muffled as she drags her hands down her cheeks. What kind of girlfriend is she when she doesn’t know when Amity’s birthday is?! 

The twins share a glance, before turning back to the internally… and outwardly panicking human.

“This is why we need your help,” Edric says.

“Huh?” Luz looks between them.

The two glance around the hall and finding it’s mostly empty, turn back to her.

“We know that Amity tells you everything, like about…” Emira makes a face, hesitating, but Edric doesn’t.

“Our family, we know she’s talked to you about our messed up family,” he says quietly with a frown.

“Oh…” Luz says. “yeah...” She nods.

“Well, then we shouldn’t need to tell you that our birthdays are used so that our parents…” 

“Mom,” Emira coughs into her hand, as though trying to cover up the word. 

“... use our birthday parties to show off to their work friends and acquaintances… it’s not really about us…” The older boy crosses his arms and frowns. Emira shares a similar look. 

It makes sense to her, of course she knew Amity wasn’t the only one just trying to get by living under her mother’s thumb, but she never expected the twins to even mention it to her.

“So, they usually suck and the guest list is full of people important to them and their work, not us, and isn’t even usually on our birthdays, just close enough to it that works with their schedules…” Emira also crosses her arms and the bitterness in her voice is clear to Luz as Amity’s had been and she feels for all the Blight siblings, she really does.

“The fact that Amity didn’t even tell YOU about her birthday? Yeah, I think that says it all,” Edric says. “We had Amity’s ‘party’...” he finger quotes and rolls his eyes. “...Sunday, but this coming Saturday is her actual birthday…”

“We have a plan to celebrate.” Emira grins at her. “...and we need your help.” she points at Luz with a grin. 

“I’m in!” Luz jumps, pumping a fist. She doesn’t even need to know what the twins are planning or what she needs to do, she’ll do it! Anything to make Amity’s birthday special for the first time since she was a kid.

Both twins grin brightly at her. They know the surefire way to ensure their sister has an actually happy birthday is to get her girlfriend involved. The two have been watching carefully over the last two months, and Amity is the happiest they can ever remember her being since their parents made her stop being friends with Willow, and they know it’s because of Luz. 

“So what’s the plan?” Luz looks between the two.

“We’ve been extra good and diligent in our studies the last two weeks…,” Edric says, holding his clasped hands to his cheeks and bats his eyes.

“No pranks of anything…” Emira follows his lead.

“So that we could ask our parents’ to let us take Mittens, and use the beach house this weekend while their out of town again on business, and they said yes.” Edric is grinning

“What they don’t know is that we’re going to be throwing Mittens a surprise birthday party there.” Emira grins too.

"There's no school Friday, so it'll be a whole weekend long bash. We'll get there Friday afternoon and leave the same time Sunday," Edric explains their plan.

“That sounds awesome!” Luz grins, bouncing with excitement. 

"We're glad you think so, we need your help with some of the planning," Edric says.

"Whatever you need, I am on it!" Luz hooks her thumb into her chest. She is determined to help make this the best birthday Amity has ever had.

"We figured you know who she hangs out with best, so we thought we'd leave who to invite to you." Emira smiles, setting a hand on her hip.

"Well…," Luz trails off thinking. "She only really ever hangs out with me Gus and Willow…," she screws up her mouth thinking. 

Amity has all but abandoned Boscha and her crew, which is for the better she thinks.

"Then just invite them." Edric shrugs.

"Yeah, it doesn't have to be a big party, with a bunch of people that are hardly even acquaintances. Mittens had plenty of that Sunday." Emira rolls her eyes.

"Okay, I'll talk to them." Luz nods.

"Great, one more thing. We're putting you in charge of the cake. Me and Ed will take care of feeding everyone for the weekend and all the little things." 

"Think you can handle it?" He leans forward with a teasing grin.

"I won't let you or Amity down!" Luz declares and then the bell is screaming.

"Alright, well we better get to class, we’ll message you the details. See ya, Luz." The twins wave as they walk off toward the illusion track hall.

Luz hurries to potions as she pulls out her scroll and sends a message in her Willow and Gus's group chat with the twins plan before switching it over to her and Amity's private one and sends her a quick message that she won't be able to hang out after school. Eda needs her home, which, yeah, is a lie, but it's for a good cause!

It's hard to concentrate on her potions work when her mind is buzzing with thoughts of the coming weekend. 

The cake is arguably one of the most important things and the twins put her in charge of it. She already knows what she needs to do.

When the teacher is preoccupied she checks her scroll to find both Willow And Gus have sent back enthusiastic yeses to the invitations. While she's looking at the scroll it makes a quiet 'ping' and a message pops to the top, from Amity.

" _Okay, I'll see you in class tomorrow."_

Luz grins at her phone as she types back a response.

_"Oh, texting in class… that's not very 'top student' behavior, Miss Blight."_

It only takes a few seconds for a reply to come in.

_"Look who's talking."_

Luz grins to herself and starts tapping.

Across the school in the abomination track hall Amity has her book held up to cover her scroll, waiting for Luz's reply that she's sure is coming.

_"I've never, in any world, claimed to be the top student, maybe the middle."_

Amity rolls her eyes but before she can reply another message comes in.

_"But I'll happily settle for dating the smartest girl in school. <3"_

Amity's face pinks and she hunkers down farther behind her book as the teacher drones on about the proper stance for abomination summoning. Something she's already covered in her personal time. 

Luz is quite pleased with herself, knowing by the long pause that somewhere, on the other side of the school, Amity is probably turning a pretty shade of pink.

She's just about to put her scroll away when it pings again, the quiet sound unnoticeable over all the boiling potions in class.

She taps the message and reads, and now it's her turn to turn color.

_"Then I guess I'll just have to content myself with dating the sweetest girl in school. See you tomorrow, xoxo"_

As her face burns, Luz both loves and regrets teaching Amity human texting lingo. The girl is going to kill her, and right in the middle of class.

When the final bell sounds for the day Luz makes a straight shot for the owl house. She would have gone straight to town to do what she needs to do but she doesn't have any money on her.

She says quick hellos to everyone as she runs by, going straight to her room and changing before taking some snails out of the small savings jars she started. More often than not Eda's potion clients tip her when she brings their deliveries, and she's started to hold onto it. Eda calls it her 'date money jar’ and Luz can't really argue with that. She mostly uses it when she and Amity go on dates, which, since they can't be seen together very often out in town by themselves, lest someone they know from school see them, she rarely dips into it.

This is a special occasion though, and she's spending it on Amity anyway.

Money firmly in her pocket she hurries back down the stairs and shoots out the door with a call that she's going to town and will be back before dinner.

Leaves crunch under her feet as she runs down the path to town.

Luz has learned that Amity actually has quite the sweet tooth, but one thing she likes more than anything is treats made out of thornberries.

She rounds the corner to stop in front of Amity's favorite bakery and freezes, stomach dropping.

It's closed and a sign hangs in the window.

_'gone on vacation, back in two weeks.'_

The date on the bottom is from yesterday to well after Amity's birthday.

"Now what am I gonna do?" she mumbles to herself. There aren't any other bakeries in Bonesburough that sell Thornberry baked goods.

She goes home, dejected.

Hooty tries to talk to her but she just nods to whatever he's rambling about as she walks into the house.

Luz walks into the kitchen and plops into a chair at the table next to Lilith, who's is flipping through a book and sighs.

"Hey, kid, what's got you lookin like someone died?" Eda looks up at her as she mixes potions on the counter.

She sighs again and explains how the twins had approached her after lunch.

"Bakery's closed, huh? Tough luck," Eda says, pouring some things into the pot and Luz watches her for a minute before she has an idea.

"Maybe I could bake a cake?" She sits up.

"Sure, why not." Eda shrugs. "Kitchens yours to use if you want."

"Can you help me?" she asks and Eda grimaces.

"Eh, you'd probably be better off on your own, I was never much of a baker," she admits.

Lilith snorts, finally looking up from her book.

"That's putting it mildly. When we were girls you almost burned down the kitchen trying to make bramblewheat bread."

"Happens." Eda shrugged, turning back to her pot. "You'd be better off asking Lilly, she was the baker." 

Luz turns to the other Clawthorne sister with wide eyes.

"You bake?" she asks, wonder coloring her words.

"I... dabbled a little when I was younger," she admits and Eda snorts from across the room.

"When we were kids she used to enter baking competitions all the time, and won quite a few of them too, cakes were your specialty." She directs the last part at Lilith, whose face colors a little at the words.

"Can you help me?"

Lilith looks at the child who is looking at her with large, pleading eyes and knows she can't refuse. Mostly because she knows that she still has atonements to make to both her sister and Luz for what she did to them, and she has grown fond of Luz, but the look is hard to ignore too. Like a cerberus puppy. 

Eda is grinning to herself from the other side of the kitchen, knowing that her sister isn't going to refuse.

"Very well. What kind of cake did you have in mind?"

"Thornberry" Luz answers immediately and Lilith cocks a brow at that.

"An unusual choice…," she hums, tapping her index finger to her chin as she regards Luz.

"Thornberry is Amity's favorite. When we go to the bakery she always gets Thornberry tarts or muffins," she explains and Lilith hums, thinking.

"We can make a thornberry cake… but you won't find them in town. It's not something people commonly use, the Redstone bakery is famous for them for that reason. We would have to go and pick them ourselves," she explains.

"Okay, where do I need to go?" she asks and Lilith chuckles..

"I'm afraid this won't be a quick jaunt to a nearby section of the woods. Thornberrys grow only on the knee."

"Oh..." 

"If thornberries are what you want we will have to leave first thing in the morning for the knee." Lilith declares.

"I have school tomorrow…," Luz starts, but Eda snorts.

"Pfft, school, schmool. That can wait." Eda waves a hand.

"While I also believe your education is important…," Lilith begins, pointedly looking at Eda out of the corner of her eye. "We will need to prepare the berries which can take a few days, and you only have until Friday morning; it will have to be tomorrow.."

Tomorrow is Tuesday, she has abominations on Tuesday with Amity, but this is for Amity, and there will be other Tuesdays. It doesn't take more than a second for Luz to decide. 

"We leave at dawn!" Luz proclaimed, thrusting her fist into the air.

"That's my girl!" Eda points at her with a grin and Lilith rolls her eyes but can't help but smile at the two.

~

They leave at dawn the next day, much to Luz's chagrin. 

She hadn't meant literally… she'd just really always wanted to say that…

The ride on Lilith’s staff is chilly and the knees biting winter like winds bite at her face.

On the way she sends Amity an apologetic text, saying that Eda needed her to go with her to gather ingredients for potions. 

She can tell by the short return text that she's disappointed, but it's for a good cause. Luz is going to do whatever she needs to do to make sure her girlfriend has the best birthday possible, come hell or high water.

The knee is even colder than she remembers now that fall has begun to settle over the Isles.

She and Lilith track through the woods in knee deep snow, foraging.

"Thornberries are oblong, dark red with black stems and leaves and covered in thorns; they only grow in this area of the knee," Lilith tells her as they search the woods for the elusive bushes.

"Red berries, black leaves…," Luz repeats to herself as she weeds through the underbrush of the forest, weaving between the trees, leaving no bush or rock unturned.

They search for two hours, but so far they have nothing to show for their efforts other than red ears and noses from being exposed to the cold. 

Luz sighs to herself frustrated. She hasn’t seen one single red berry or even a hint of the black plant. 

Lilith keeps searching ahead of them While Luz turns to search another section of trees, splitting up to cover more ground seems like the logical thing to do. 

She shoves her way through some scraggly, thorny plants, though not the ones she’s looking for, muttering under her breath. Her nose is numb and her cheeks feel raw, buffeted by the cold winds of the knee. 

She shoves some tall bushes out of her way and glances around, freezing at the sight in front of her.

About twenty yards away, is a small field full of black plants with shiny red berries.

And sleeping curled up in the snow near them, is a Slitherbeast, snoring loudly. 

Stiffly, with eyes wide, Luz backs out of the bushes.

“Lilith… Lilith!” She hisses in a loud whisper over her shoulder, but stops. There is no way Lilith is going to allow them to pick berries so close to a sleeping Slitherbeast.

Luz frowns, fist tightening on the empty burlap sacks in her hand.

She needs those berries…

Luz swallows thickly, mouth suddenly dry as she quietly pushes through the bushes and with the slowest, most careful steps she’s ever taken, makes her way over to the plants. She glances at the Slitherbeast, still snoring peacefully as she crouches down, wincing at the sound of the snow crunching under her boots as she does. She doesn’t think her heartbeat has ever been as loud as it is right now, A heavy staccato rhythm in her ears. 

With careful fingers she begins pulling berries off the plant as quickly and quietly as she can. When this one is picked clean she moves to the next and repeats the process, glancing over at the sleeping creature every minute or so. She’s not paying attention for a second and thorns dig into her bare fingertips. 

“Ow!” She yelps and immediately slaps her mouth shut, eyes whipping to the Slitherbeast, its snoring hitches for a moment before returning to evenness and Luz breathes a silent sigh of relief before she goes back to collecting berries as fast as she can. 

One of her bags is full, a second is nearly full, and she’s picked about half the bushes clean. She has no idea how many they need and if she’s going to put herself in mortal danger for this she may as well go for broke. 

“Luz!” Lilith’s voice cuts through the trees and Luz freezes.

The bushes begin to rustle and Luz whips around in time to see Lilith break through the line of underbrush.

She freezes upon seeing the Slitherbeast, still sleeping nearby and looks between it and Luz, eyes wide before an outraged look comes over her face and she silently points down at the ground in front of her.

The message is clear.

_'get over here!'_

Luz tiptoes with her bags of berries carefully over to Lilith, but a rock, covered in snow is her undoing.

She can't help but call out as she slips and tumbles face forward into the snow and something else if the pain theat erupts from her forehead is anything to go by.

A screeching roar makes her jump up much more quickly than normal and grab her bags, hightailing it toward Lilith, who is now flying toward her on her staff.

Luz jumps on, almost over shooting it and flinging herself over the staff, but a hand fisted into the back of her coat steadies her as they fly away from the Slitherbeast that gives up on chasing them after only a few seconds.

"Whew, that was close…," she breathes. 

"What were you thinking?!" Lilith is scowling at her over her shoulder. "That creature could have easily killed you."

"I needed the berries!" Luz yelped, holding up the two filled sacs.

"Ugh..." Lilith slapped a hand to her forehead as they flew away from the knee. She turned back to say something else but saw the blood running down Luz's face from her forehead. It seemed like quite a bit of blood.

"Your bleeding…"

"Huh?" Luz reached up and winced as her fingers touched her forehead over her left eye. She winced and pulled her hand away to find her fingertips covered in blood.

"Well that's not good…”

Lilith pushes her staff faster toward home.

~

Eda is not pleased when they get back and blood has dripped down half of Luz’s face though she doesn’t seem to be suffering or badly hurt.

They clean off her face and it’s a decent cut, but nothing serious. Luz just shrugs and explains that forehead cuts just bleed a lot, at least on humans.

Eda slaps a white gauze bandage on her forehead and calls it good. Luz hurries to the kitchen where Lilith is washing the bags of berries.

“What do we do first?” Luz looks up at Lilith as she finishes washing them. 

“First, you dry these,” she instructs, handing Luz the large bowl full of them. "We’re going to cook them down into jam to use between the layers of cake.

"How do you make jam?" Luz asked, looking up from the wet, shiny, red fruit to gaze at Lilith, brown eyes wide with wonder and the elder Clawthorne sister can't help but smile. 

"I'll show you."

The rest of the day is spent making and canning jars of thornberry jam and talking about baking and magic.

Eda is her magical mentor, but Lilith knows more, even if Eda was more powerful by Lilith's own admission, she actually finished school and her years in the emperor's coven had given her access to the castle's vast library full of books about all manner of magic.

She can better explain the theory and technicalities of certain magics better than Eda could.

She has a precise and easy way of explaining things that reminds her of Amity, which makes sense, Amity used to study under Lilith; though now they hardly speak.

Amity had to come clean shortly after their month anniversary about having come to speak to Lilith that day in the market one day when Luz suggested they hang out with the elder Clawthorne for some magical tutoring. 

She still hasn't forgiven Lilith for what she'd done to her or to Luz. She knew Lilith was trying, but she wasn't ready to forgive.

She wasn't sure how her girlfriend would feel about it, but Luz said as much to Lilith who listens quietly, intently, frowning, and when Luz is done she just nods knowingly.

"Amity is a proud girl, and after you told us about her family life it’s easy to understand why she can't forgive me," she finally says, accepting, and Luz frowns.

"But you're trying!" Luz argues." She respects her girlfriend's feelings, but seeing Amity upset about her old mentor doesn't make sense to Luz when it's so obvious that Lilith wants to make amends and do better. "I forgave you, and you kidnapped and tried to kill me!" She throws up her hands. Both sisters make uncomfortable faces at that.

"You are…" Lilith hesitates.

"You're a freak of nature when it comes to kindness, Kid," Eda says. "Almost no one is as kind as you, and even most people who are would have a hard time forgiving someone who tried to make a shish kabob out of them." Eda adds her two snails from the kitchen table where she's drinking apple blood out of her 'thirty & flirty' mug and Lilith makes a face but doesn't argue. "Your girlfriend has trust issues with adults,” she says, taking a loud slurp from the cup. "Just look at what you're doing, the look-alikes are having to throw her a completely separate and secret birthday party because their parents use theirs for influence-mongering," Eda growls.

She might give them a hard time and tease them, but Luz knows Eda likes Amity, and is becoming just as protective of her girlfriend as she is of Luz.

Lilith nods.

"Amity is accustomed to being betrayed, manipulated and lied to by the people she is supposed to be able to trust. I broke her trust, so earning it back will take time and work on my part." She then smiles at Luz and hesitates a moment before reaching out to pat the girl's head. "I know you have forgiven me, but I do not yet feel I have earned that forgiveness, and until I do, I will work to earn hers and be worthy of yours. Yours, Amity's and…" Her dual colored eyes flicker over Luz's head to where Eda is sitting at the kitchen table, watching silently with the same eyes.

Whatever long talks the sisters have had about this subject, Luz has not been privy to, and for once she knows better than to ask. Sometimes, things are still quite tense between the two and Luz can't tell what is just sibling bickering or… something else.

"...this is something I must do." Lilith picks up where she left off.

"But I…," she starts.

"That's enough, Luz." Eda's unusually serious voice cuts her off and Luz hunkers down.

"Okay…," she mumbles. Lilith smiles and pats her head again. 

"If someday, Amity would like to learn from me again I would be glad to teach her. She has incredible potential and is a very apt and studious girl." Lilith shifts the conversation back to a topic that is always a surefire way to perk Luz up and keep her talking; her girlfriend.

"I know… she was upset last week when she got a A- on our abominations test... I'd kill for a C in abominations!" Luz throws up her hands in exasperation.

"Eh, you'll figure it out before you know it, and then those ugly, goopy things will be all over the house," Eda huffs with a wave of her hand.

"I agree." Lilith nods and Luz looks up at her, surprised. "You don't have an inherent affinity for magic, but where you are naturally lacking you make up for in tenacity and ingenuity." She smiles down at her.

"That's what makes you better, Kid. You work for it," Eda agrees with a grin.

Luz can't help but grin too at the praise.

They finish turning all the berries save a few into jam and store them in the fridge. They need to sit for a couple of days. 

One thing they do have in the Isles that Luz is familiar with, oddly enough, is vanilla and it far more readily available then thornberries. They decide to make the layers of the cake vanilla with thornberry jam on top and between the layers.

With the cake well on it’s way Luz only has one thing left to do.

She needs to figure out just what exactly she’s going to give Amity for her birthday.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love how paranoid yall all are in the comments, waiting for the second shoe to drop.  
> I find it endlessly entertaining.
> 
> I hate editing long documents so this is gonna be in a few parts.

Amity isn't having the best week.

Sunday felt like it lasted forever, stuffed into an itchy, uncomfortable dress that her mother had picked for her to wear to her party where she had to spend several hours with a fake smile plastered on her face, till her cheeks hurt, playing her part along with the twins. 

She's pressured into a few dances with the children of their parents' coworkers and it hits her that the same songs, that feel so short when she dances with Luz, can feel so agonizingly long with their clammy hands on hers and their much too stiff grip on her waist.

Songs aren’t nearly long enough when her girlfriend holds her and spins her around. It makes her feel light and she doesn't think she could possibly dance better then she does with Luz. 

She feels slow and jerky dancing with the other children of her parents’ blueblood, society friends. 

They smile in a way they think must be charming and dashing, but Amity knows better. Most of them are just as scheming and devious as their parents or just as uninterested in all of this as she is.

She was looking forward to Monday if for no other reason than to get out of her house and see Luz, which she did, just not as much as usual.

She had to go home straight after school to help Eda, which did happen sometimes.

She at least had Tuesday to look forward to, but the next day as she was arriving at school her scroll beeped with a message from Luz, saying she wasn’t going to be at school today, which yeah, was pretty disappointing. Tuesday had become her favorite day of the school week, even if her ability to take notes and pay attention to the teacher did slip quite noticeably on that particular day of the week.

Wednesday comes and Luz does come to school, with a bandage on her forehead, claiming she fell on the stairs, which is on par for her, but it’s quickly forgotten, along with Monday and Tuesday when she yanks Amity into a concealed corner to kiss her while their friends play watch. 

Lunch is normal enough, even though she tells her that she has to go straight home again after school, she at least got to see her today so she’ll make do. 

On Thursday Luz arrives late, so they miss each other, and is then curiously absent from lunch, though she sends her a message saying they finally can spend some time together after school, but Luz seems distracted when she arrives.

They’re lounging around their secret room, reading and normally Luz is much more animated when they read Azura, but today she seems lost in thought.

“Are you okay?” Amity finally asks from her place reclined against her girlfriend’s chest. 

They’ve been sitting on the floor, Luz’s back against the cushions with Amity sitting between her legs, back against her chest while she holds the third Azura book they’ve been rereading in her hands. 

Luz has been strangely quiet, running her index finger over the tip of one of Amity’s pointed ears distractedly. She’s become quite used to being in intimate proximity to Luz but her face is still pink regardless, though faint. She’s beginning to get a little worried. Luz is hardly this quiet for this long, it’s a little unnerving. 

“Hmm?” Luz hums questioningly and Amity knows she hasn’t been listening to anything she’s been reading either. “Sorry, what?” Luz glances down at her and mercifully the finger running over her ear stops as well.

Amity tilts her head back to look at her.

“I asked if you were okay,” she repeats the question.

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine, why?” she cocks her head. 

“You’ve just been quiet today and you've been really busy and I...,” she trails off not sure how to say ‘You’ve been busy and I miss you’ without coming off as clingy or needy, because really, it's just been a few days; but the limited time they have together before or after school and on Tuesdays is special to her, and she finds herself not at all liking the sudden deprivation from it.

She doesn’t have to say it though. Luz’s confused face slowly turns into a grin as she looks down at her.

“Have you been lonely without me, Amity?” She asks in a syrupy sweet and knowing voice that makes Amity turn red and scowl at the same time.

Amity just huffs, turning away and Luz grins at the back of her head and wraps her arms around her, squeezing her close and pressing a kiss to her the back of her head.

“Lo siento, mi amor. Eda has just been working on a big project and has been needing my help."

Amity relaxes into her hold, mock annoyance, and any real annoyance or loneliness she’s been feeling at Luz’s sudden absence this week, fading as she holds her tightly. She has to remind herself that she can tell Luz anything without fear of judgment or being made fun of. It’s still a strange thing to her.

“I understand I just…” her face remains pink as she mumbles something under her breath. 

“What was that?” Luz blinks and whatever she said is repeated at the same volume.

“Uh, one more time?” Luz asks and Amity makes an annoyed sound in her throat.

“I said… I miss you,” she finally says loud enough for her to hear, but the tone is soft, fragile. “I miss you when we’re not together,” she mumbles, but Luz hears her and is glad that Amity is still facing away from her so she can’t see the teary doe-eyed look she’s giving her. 

“I miss you too, Amity.” She sat her chin on her shoulder and squeezed. 

Amity broke into a wide grin as Luz smooshed her face against hers. 

“Maybe... we could hang out this weekend? My family has a beach house on the southern side of the Isles and the twins got them to let the three of us go over for the long weekend by ourselves… would you like to go?” She glanced back and frowned upon seeing the grimace on luz’s face. “You’re busy aren’t you?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

“Yeah… since they can’t use magic to carry things it’s all hands on deck for the monthly supply run Saturday.” Luz frowned, especially as she watched the way her girlfriend's face fell. Sure, she was lying for the greater good, and Amity would be so excited tomorrow when they surprised her, but that didn’t make the disappointed look on her face any easier to see right now.

“I’m sorry…,” Luz started but Amity shook her head.

“It’s okay… I understand,” she assured with a small smile, but Luz knows better, she's gotten good at reading Amity's face and the tone of her voice; she's disappointed.

“When Eda's project is done we'll spend a whole weekend together, I promise, mi amor." She squeezes Amity close and smiles knowingly into her hair.

"Soon, I hope," Amity sighs, leaning into her hold, deciding to just enjoy the time they have now 

_'much sooner than you think'_ Luz thinks to herself.

When their time together is done for the day Luz hurries home through the portal and runs straight to her room to get her stuff ready.

Gus and Willow will be there before noon tomorrow so they can take her portal glyph to the beach house. She's been practicing with it and the size of the glyph doesn't seem to matter. It just needs to be big enough to walk through, and she can be anywhere on the Isles near instantly.

Out of curiosity she tried one and thought of the human world, but it went nowhere.

Much as she hates to think it, she can't find it in herself to be disappointed. No one can say she didn't try though.

Her bag is packed and ready by the door, along with the box of decorations the twins had given her at lunchtime today. Since she, Willow, and Gus will get there first, they're on decoration duty. 

Next to it are two cardboard boxes of her surprise for Amity and she grins to herself at the thought. 

Amity hadn't expressly forbidden her from buying her presents but she didn't like Luz buying her stuff when they went out by themselves or with their friends.

She told her she felt bad when Luz spent her limited funds on her.

So Luz had come up with a rather ingenious gift if she does say so herself. Something they don't have on the Boiling Isles.

She couldn't believe her luck when she'd been digging through one of Eda's human junk piles in one of the spare rooms. 

Two large boxes full of the stuff.

She ran to Eda asking if she could have them and Eda waves a hand.

"Whatever you want in there, take it, Kid."

She couldn't wait to see the look on Amity's face. Everyone else's too.

It takes her a while to go to sleep that night, she's so excited she tosses and turns a while and King gets fed up with her and stalks off to Eda's room, mumbling under his breath.

She wakes up before dawn the next day and jumps out of bed and dresses before quickly running down the stairs.

Lilith is sitting at the table having her customary cup of morning tea when Luz skids into the kitchen. The elder Clawthorne smiles at her, though far more subdued then the manic one on the human's face.

"Let's get baking!" Luz throws up her hands and Lilith chuckles.

"Very well."

A few hours later the sun has risen and Eda and King have finally come downstairs, groggy and eyes barely open just as Luz is boxing up the cake.

"All done?" Eda mumbles as she pours herself some apple blood.

"Yup, just waiting on Gus and Willow!" She grins setting the cake box down the table and swats at King's hand as he reaches for it.

"No, King, that's for Amity's party," she scolds and the tiny demon grumbles, glaring up at her.

"Everything you do is for that cupcake smasher!" he squeals with rage at being denied.

"I do not!" Luz argues.

"Yes, you do!" King stands in the chair, pointing a tiny clawed hand at her.

"Well…!" Luz pauses not sure what to say to that. Maybe she does do a lot for Amity, but Amity does just as much for her, so she fails to see how that's a bad thing. 

Eda is watching her and grins.

Luz of course talked her ear off about their date under the grom tree last month, including her impromptu confession of love. 

_She'd just been nodding along, half-listening, flipping through a book as Luz waxed poetic about how 'amazing' and 'romantic' it was until the words: "Then I accidentally said I loved her out loud…"_

_That made her sit up and pay attention._

_Luz had a tendency to get carried away and she was suddenly worried she'd… how did the kid put it? 'jumped the gun?'_

_She listened much closer to the rest of the story._

_"Did you mean it?" Eda asked her when she finishes._

_"Huh?" Luz looked up at her._

_"Do you love her?" the older witch clarified._

_"Oh…" Luz looked away, smiling dopily to herself. "Yeah… I did mean it. I do love her." She nodded._

_"How do you know?" Eda pressed and Luz looked at her confused and Eda frowned, trying to think of a way to word it that wouldn't burst Luz's bubble if she was wrong. She just wants to protect her kid._

_"Look, Luz, I know you like her a lot, believe me, and I'm not trying to say you couldn't love her, but you are still young and you do tend to get ahead of yourself…, so I'm just asking, how do you know you love her?" she words carefully. This is new territory for Eda._

_'The talk' she can give, she's plenty familiar with that, but love? That's never been her strong suit, and she has a long trail of broken relationships behind her to prove it._

_Luz pursed her lips, trying to think of a way to explain it to her mentor, whose right of course. She knows she's still young and stuff, she's famous for leaping before she looks, but Luz also knows her feelings. She's spent enough time alone with only her feelings to know how to read them, she's had crushes, but she's never felt anything like this before._

_"Being with Amity… makes me happier than I've ever been…, then I thought I could be…," she starts slowly. "And I want to make her happy too… and I'd do anything to do that." She looks up at Eda, who's staring back at her with an unreadable expression._

_"Alright," she finally says._

_"Alright?" Luz repeats, blinking. Eda nods._

_"If you say you love her, I believe you."_

_Luz smiles at her._

_"And if she breaks your heart, we'll feed her to Hooty…" she grins wickedly making Luz squawk._

_"Eda!"_

"Well…" Luz hesitates, trying to figure out what to say.

"You love her, that’s how it goes," Eda says with a shrug, drawing everyone's gaze.

""Edalyn, they've only been together-" whatever else Lilith is going to say it's cut off by Luz who grins.

"Yeah," she says with a grin. "And Amity loves me, so we do things to make each other happy,” she tells the demon looking up at her grumpily. “I love you too though." She bends down and kisses the top of King's head and he makes a little squealing sound. "But this is for Amity, I'll make a cake for you next weekend," she promises, and then there's a knock on the door. "Gus and Willow are here!" She sprints out of the room leaving a grinning Eda, a stunned Lilith, and a happily squeaking King in her wake.

Lilith looks to her sister who is grinning behind her cup, looking where Luz has disappeared into the living room, where she and her friends' voices are coming from.

"You knew about this?" she asks.

"Mhmm," is her sister's answer. 

"And you didn't talk to her?" Lilith cocks a brow as Eda's eyes slide to look at her.

"I did," she says, then takes a loud slurp from her cup.

"And?"

"And she loves her." Eda shrugs. "What do you want from me?"

"Edalyn, she's fourteen, how could she possibly know that?" Lilith sighs, rubbing her temples. Eda leans back in her chair, holding up her cup and giving her sister a deadpan look.

"And how can we know she isn't?" she retorts.

"They… they…!" Lilith holds up her hands, trying to decide what to say.

"Look, the kid and I talked. She says she's in love and I believe it. I honestly think Luz would put her life on the line for that girl, and I don't think I'm wrong when I say the same thing for Amity, heck, I watched her jump in front of Luz to protect her from Grom, and that was before they were dating!" Eda threw up a hand. 

Lilith looks toward the living room where they can hear the kids talking. 

"I suppose time will tell…," she hums. 

Eda just grunts in response, much to her sister's annoyance.

"Perhaps you really should give her… a talk…," Lilith says after a moment and Eda snorts into her cup, laughing.

"Already covered, in great, embarrassing detail," she says proudly. 

"No doubt." Lilith rolls her eyes and her sister only grins.

Luz dashes back into the kitchen and carefully picks up the box containing the cake.

"We're heading out," she says. Eda stands and walks over.

"Have fun, kid." She ruffles Luz's hair, making her grin.

"Ah, Luz, before you go, I have something for you to take." Lilith pulls a small dark blue wrapped gift from her pocket and sets it gently atop The cake box. "Something for Amity I would like her to have… only if she wants it…," she explains.

Luz looks at the small gift before looking up at Lilith and nodding with a smile.

With that, she turns and walks quickly but carefully out of the kitchen.

A few minutes later a portal blazed to life in front of the owl house and then all the kids are gone.

"What'cha give the kid?" Eda asks curiously, glancing at Lilith out of the corner of her eye.

"Something I hope she finds useful…" 

"I hate it when you're cryptic…" Eda grumbles and Lilith smirks.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's 2 am so just excuse any mistakes for now.  
> The final part of Sandcastles.

She doesn't really want to go to the beach house with the twins. 

She’d much rather spend it with Luz, but since Luz is busy and it would be depressing to sit at home alone all weekend, and on her birthday no less, she relents. The two practically beg her to come with them anyway, which is strange, but she knows they still feel bad about the hair thing from a couple of weeks ago, and are looking to make up for their teasing her about it, so with few other appealing options, she agrees. 

They get off the Boiling Isles version of public transport at the closest town to the beach and from there it’s a short ten-minute walk to the Blight family’s vacation home.

Though it’s mostly only used when their parent’s really want to show off to people, most of the year it sits empty. 

“Ah, don’t have such a long face, Mittens,” her brother starts. “Maybe Luz couldn’t come with you to the house, but that doesn’t mean you won’t have a good time.” He smiles at her and there is something suspiciously knowing about it, she knows her siblings, they’re planning something, but she hasn’t the slightest clue what it could be. 

The pranks are still quite present, but to a much smaller degree since the ‘library incident’ as it’s now referred to, so she’s not particularly worried about that; her siblings are just acting strange.

They’ve been sneaking around and having hushed conversations; last night she’d passed by Edric’s closed bedroom door and overheard some of their muffled conversations by chance. 

“Luz is sneakier than I gave her credit for,” Her sister laughed. She hears her brother’s muffled voice but can’t clearly hear what he’s saying. “I trust her, I’m sure she has it all taken care of, I can’t wait to see Mitten’s face,” Emira speaks again, and then it’s too muffled to hear anything else, try as she might. That one little comment set off warning bells in her head.

Luz was doing something with her sibling, but what could it have to do with her?

By the sound of it, all Luz’s sudden absences during the week make sense if Ed and Em have her sneaking around doing something, which worries her. Her siblings can be quite devious when they want to be and sometimes even when they aren’t trying, their pranks sometimes tend to backfire spectacularly. She worries that Luz may be in over her head, that, and she’d lied to her about Eda needing her help. The only reason she would do that she can guess at is that the twins have her doing something she wouldn’t approve of, which makes her head spin with worrying possibilities. She knows Luz would never help her siblings pull some kind of mean spirited prank on her; not intentionally at least.

She hadn’t intentionally been part of the debacle with her diary that night in the library either, but it had happened. Her stomach twists up and she frowns. Ed and Em know how much Luz means to her and she can’t imagine them doing something, now that is, that could end with Luz hurting her in some way. 

She’s missing something but she can’t for the life of her figure it out. It's the blue moon masquerade all over again. Luz and her siblings are collaborating again. Not that that had turned out bad in the end, not at all, but the twins are unpredictable and Luz is an unstoppable ball of energy when the mood strikes her. Amity loves that exuberant energy when it's channeled in the correct direction that is.

They round the bend and the house comes into view.

It’s large, just like their everyday home, in the gothic style the Blight family is known for and sits only about thirty yards from the sand and water of the beach. 

“Ah, sweet, parentless solitude!” Edric grins as they walk around the house to the front door with their bags.

“Ready for an awesome birthday weekend, Mittens?” Emira nudges Amity playfully with her hip and grins.

“What’s going to be so awesome about it?” Amity grumbles, crossing her arms, missing the looks the twins throw each other over her head, they are living for this; knowing what’s coming. 

“You sure are grumpy without your daily dose of Luz,” her brother teases, and Amity pinks, growling at him, her sharp eye teeth poking out from between her lips, but doesn’t say anything though.

There’s no point, they all know it’s true and she won't do their relationship the disservice of denying it. She's wrankled because she’s here with just the twins when she’d really hoped Luz would be able to come with them, and they know it.

Add in that something is going on with her girlfriend and siblings and she hasn’t the slightest clue, does not put her in the best mood.

“Hey, I bet Ed and I can give you the best birthday you ever had.” Emira smiles at her and Amity can tell it's genuine. 

“I doubt it,” Amity mumbles, making her sister frown and she feels bad immediately after. The twins are trying, they are, which is more than she can say about their parents.

She stops a few feet from the door, looking down at her feet and the twins both look at her.

“I’m sorry… I’m being a jerk…,” she finally says, and the twins share mirrored looks of surprise. “I just… we only have a few minutes before school and a couple of hours after, and we can’t be seen out together in public much or mom and dad would find out, and then after what happened at the owl house someone is always checking up on us…,” she trails off. “I was just really hoping she would be able to come this weekend so we could hang out without worrying about anything… I really wanted her to be here for my birthday… which I didn’t even tell her about…,” she sighs. 

When she looks back up the twins are looking at her with identical, sympathetic faces.

“Hey, it’s okay, Amity.” Emira wraps an arm around her shoulder. “We can’t imagine how hard it must be to have to hide it all the time.” She squeezed. 

“Yeah, don’t worry about it… it’s not like we’ve never been jerks to you!” he chuckled. “But, uh…, why didn’t you tell her about your birthday?” he asks what both twins have been wondering since Luz revealed she didn't know.

Amity frowns at the question and fingers the hem of her shirt 

"I guess I just… didn’t want to explain the stuff about our birthdays to her. I know she feels bad about a lot of the stuff that goes on at home already, I didn’t want to give her another reason to worry about me, or do something totally overboard,” she huffs a small laugh but it quickly dies in her throat and she chews on her lips before looking up at the twins who for once are looking at her with patient, understanding.

“Sometimes… I just feel so overwhelmed by all her affection, like I don’t deserve it…,” she barely gets to finish before both twins have their arms wrapped around her. 

“Of course you do.” Emira squeezes her tightly. “Maybe you can be a stick in the mud sometimes…”

“But you're our stick in the mud,” Edric finishes. “And we bet Luz would say the same thing.” 

"Yeah, she's lucky to have you," Emira agrees.

Amity’s cheeks are pink but she can’t help but smile as her brother and sister squeeze her between them.

They finally let go and stand back.

“We know how much you wanted Luz to come with us, but don’t worry, this is gonna be the best birthday you ever had, we made sure of it,” her brother assures, and the twins smile, not their usually coy or playful smiles, but ones of genuine affection for Amity, who can’t help but smile back. 

“Okay…” she takes a step forward but her sister holds her back.

“One more thing…,” Emira says, her smile turning into a grin. “What happened at the owl house that makes the owl lady have to check up on you two?” 

Amity’s face turns blood red.

“Nothing! Nothing happened at the owl house!” 

The twins share knowing grins.

“It sure sounds like something happened…,” Edric sing-songs and Amity scowls.

“I’m going inside!” Amity spins on her heel and opens the door and the twins follow her in, still grinning. They’ll just have to interrogate Luz later. They promised themselves they wouldn't tease Amity this weekend… much.

The house is pitch black, save for the shaft of light coming in from the open door to light the entryway. The curtains are all drawn closed, keeping out the sunlight.

Ed and Em close the door behind her and it’s truly dark for a second before somewhere in front of her she sees a blue and green spell circle blink into existence for a brief second before all the lights are lit.

“Surprise!” Confetti is flying everywhere. 

Amity jumps as Willow, Gus, Luz, and the twins yell.

“Wha- what…?” she stares at them wide-eyed.

“Happy birthday Amity!” The three standing in front of her shout. 

Amity just stands there, mouth hanging open.

“I think she was surprised,” Edric laughs from behind her. 

“I do believe your right,” Emira agrees. 

"What is this?" She blinks, wide, gold eyes as she looks around, confetti in her hair. The room is decorated with streamers and balloons. 

"Your surprise birthday party, duh!" The twins laugh at Amity's shocked face. They are quite pleased with themselves.

Willow and Gus both run up and hug their bewildered friend. Luz hangs back, still grinning and watching her girlfriend's shocked face. She knows her turn will come, she's glad to watch for the moment, even as she vibrates with energy.

"I…,'' Amity mumbles finally when it sets in what is happening as her friends hug her. Her lip trembles and she doesn't even realize she's crying till it's hard to see through the tears. She squeezes both Gus and Willow who are still grinning madly and laughing.

They finally let her go as Luz walks up.

"Soooo, are you surprised?" she asks, grinning from ear to ear and only just manages to steady herself as Amity throws herself at her with a choked cry, arms wrapping around her.

"It's a party, don't cry, mi amor," she chuckles quietly, running a hand soothingly up and down Amity's back.

"I'm just… really happy…," she hiccups into Luz's shoulder. She pulls back and wipes at her face but she's smiling so brightly it makes Luz's chest tight to see her so happy 

"How did you…?" she trails off, still sniffling.

"It was all Ed and Em's idea." Luz nodded to the twins, giving credit where it’s due, looking back at the twins who were grinning at them; when Amity turned around to look at them, they wink.

It's the twins turn to get wrapped in Amity's arms, an arm slung around each of their waists as she squeezes them for all she's worth, face buried in their chests. 

"I love you." only the twins can hear her muffled words. They squeeze her back, a head-on each side of hers.

"We love you too," is quietly mumbled in stereo into her ears.

"Are we going to party or not?!" Gus finally asks, throwing up his hands when the siblings have separated. 

"Yeah!" Luz whoops. 

They quickly get settled in, putting away their bags and retreating to the strip of beach that makes up the backyard.

There's a net stretched between two poles stuck in the sand and the Blight siblings notice it immediately. 

"What is that?” Edric cocks his head curiously.

"It's a net. It's for a game I'm going to teach you guys called volleyball." Luz explains, holding up a grudgby ball. It was the closest thing she could find to a volleyball and was of a similar tough, but giving, material.

Luz explains the rules and they have a few practice rounds before they decide to play a game.

"Who is going to be on the teams?" Willow looks around at them.

"We could play boys vs girls," Gus suggests.

"That would make the teams four versus two though." Emira points out.

"We'll take Luz." Edric wraps an arm around the human’s shoulders and Gus nods his approval, while Luz just blinks as the guys drag her to them. 

"Why do you get Luz?" Amity is quick to protest. 

“Because, she’s good with girls, and looks dashing in a suit.” He holds up a finger for each reason. “What else do you need? She’s one of us,” he explains with a smirk. Emira rolls her eyes at her brother and Amity grumbles while Willow can only watch, chuckling.

“It’s cool, I’ll play with the guys,” she agrees. “Let’s get this game started, I’ll serve!” Luz runs to her position and everyone else moves into place. 

They've been blessed by the last lingering whispering dregs of summer and the day is quite warm. 

Especially as they run around in the sun, screaming and laughing as they chase the ball and trash talk across the court Luz has drawn with a stick in the sand. 

“That was so in!” Emira yells.

“In your dreams!” Gus yells back.

They only have to break up a few arguments, usually between some combination of the Blight siblings, though Gus and Willow will argue a call too. 

Luz is just glad they all seem to be having a good time.

She knew Amity was athletic and could be very competitive, but actually watching her play, and a game without magic at that is a different experience altogether. She’ll jump and dive at any given opportunity to score or keep their shots from scoring. 

The timer on Luz’s phone is ticking down to the final minutes. The next shot will decide the winner and Ed is serving. 

He smacks it in the air and Willow meets it, passing it over to Amity who sends it flying back over the net.

“I got it!” Gus shouts diving forward into the sand and sending it back over before Amity’s shot can land.

Luz watches the ball fly over the net but her eyes land on Amity who is grinning brightly as they play, and she can’t help smile stupidly, glad Amity is having so much fun.

She’s too busy gawking at her girlfriend instead of watching the ball and especially not Emira, who jumps up at the net to intercept Gus’s shot and with a loud smack spikes it over the net.

Luz sees Amity’s eyes turn to her just before the ball smacks her straight in the face and it all goes black for a second.

“Luz!” Several people are yelling her name as her back hits the sand.

Her eyes squint open, the bright sun glaring down at her. 

Then there's a shadow over her, blocking it out. Amity’s scared and worried face comes into view, followed closely by everyone else.

“Luz, are you okay?” Willow asks.

“Ow…,” Luz mumbles, and then her friends are helping her sit up.

“I’m sorry!” Emira quickly says.

“I'm… okay… just kinda dazed…” she smiles reassuringly, though it looks a little more like a grimace as they help her to her feet.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Amity is gently running her fingers over her face as though looking for a fracture or something.

“I’m fine, Amity,” she says, shooing her hands away, though her face does smart, she’s not going to tell Amity that. 

“Good… in that case, we won!” Emira cheers with a grin and the boys squawk at that. 

"That doesn't count!" Edric stomps.

"Injuring a member of the other team does not count!” Gus agrees.

“It hit the ground.” Emira sticks her tongue out.

“It did hit the ground inbounds,” Willow agrees.

“After it bounced off Luz’s face!” Edric fumes. 

Amity rolls her eyes at all of them and turns her attention back to Luz as she stands, brushing sand off her shorts.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” she asks.

“No harm!” Luz grins. “Not the first time someone hit me in the face with a ball, and it probably won’t be the last.” 

“Let’s try to keep it to a minimum anyway though,” she smirks, crossing her arms. “Try watching the ball and not me,” she says quietly, so only Luz hears as the other four squabble about who won.

Luz chuckles while Amity looks at her knowingly. 

"No promises, Hermosa." Luz winks. 

Amity knows that word from her Spanish to English dictionary and Luz knows she does by the way she flushes red, which makes her snicker.

The girls finally claim victory when Luz agrees with them that the ball hit in bounds, regardless of whether or not it bounced off her face first. The boys look betrayed for all of a few seconds, but concede, she's the injured party here, and she knows the rules. 

Though that doesn't stop Edric from coughing 'whipped' into his hand, which fools no one and only makes Luz blush and Amity scowl; everyone else just grins or smothers their laughter

Edric quickly issues a challenge for a rematch, though this time it's the Blight siblings versus the friend squad, and they give as good as they get, but the Blights are overwhelmingly victorious in the end. 

They hang out on the beach and play for a while until the twins decide it's time to start cooking dinner.

Luz uses a fire glyph to start the fire pit sitting in the sand and the twins go back up to the house to collect the things they need. Willow volunteers to go with them to help carry stuff back down.

"I'll stay here with…," Gus starts but Willow grabs his arm and drags him along with her after the twins.

"You'll come with me." 

"But…," he protests as the plant witch drags him away.

Amity chuckles at it. _'Very smooth, Willow…'_ she thinks fondly as she plops down into the sand next to Luz, who smiles at her.

"Having a good time?" she asks and Amity wraps an arm around Luz's as they sit shoulder to shoulder.

"The best." She nods, setting her cheek on the human's shoulder. "This is the best birthday I ever had."

"Well, there's still more to come." She beams. "Which reminds me, why the heck didn't you tell me tomorrow was your birthday!?" She throws her free arm up. Amity grimaces, turning her face away and sighs.

"I'm sorry, Luz," she says. "I just know you worry about the stuff that happens at home and I didn't want to add the mess that is our birthdays onto that. It's not a big deal, I just didn't want you to worry about it." 

"I know you don't want me to worry, but I'm gonna anyway, and I worry more when I find out stuff like this from Ed and Em instead of you, so you shoulda just told me. We talked about this…," she said quietly, frowning. 

"I know, I know, I'm sorry. I just didn't think my birthday was anything to be concerned about, but I knew you would be, It's not a big deal."

"It's a big deal to me! I for one am glad you were born!" she says and Amity smiles at that. 

"...I also didn't want you to go overboard trying to make up the difference...," she adds.

"But going overboard is what I do!" Luz grins, much to proud of that, and Amity rolls her eyes but smiles fondly at her.

"I know you do. It's just…," she pauses, and Luz can see her making that face that means she's thinking about what to say. "It's overwhelming sometimes," she finally says and Luz blinks, smile falling as she looks at the pensive look that has slipped onto Amity's face.

"My going overboard? I can work on pulling it back…," she starts but Amity is shaking her head.

"No, Luz, not that, and don't do that, I love you just how you are." She stops her, and those words make a whole host of emotions rise up in Luz. She can't help it, after being the outcast all her life in the human world, but she pushes that aside for now. She needs to stay focussed! She unwinds her arm from Amity's and turns to better face her.

"What's overwhelming then?" 

Amity doesn't hesitate for more than a second.

"Being loved by you," she finally says, and brown eyes widen at that. "Sometimes, it just feels like so much all at once and I feel like I don't deserve it all," she admits. 

"That's not…," Luz begins but Amity's hand on her mouth stops her.

"Just… let me finish?" she pleads, looking at Luz. She nods and Amity pulls her hand away. She looks sad and Luz frowns, she wants to tell her how wrong she is, but she waits. Just more time to gear up for her rebuttal.

"You're… so kind and loving… and I'm just not. So I can't help but wonder why you love me…," Amity trails off and turns away from Luz to look out at the water, hands on her knees, pulled up to her chest, unable to look at Luz right now.

Luz pursed her lips. Leave it to Amity to not see how great she is and that just isn't going to fly with Luz. 

"Can I talk now?" 

Amity nods.

"Excuse the language, but that's crap, Amity," she says plainly and Amity whips back to look at her, gold eyes wide.

"Eda says when it comes to kindness I'm a freak of nature, so you shouldn't be comparing yourself to me or to anyone for that matter! You're one of the kindest, most loving people I know!" Luz starts. "And maybe, yeah, you're not great at outwardly showing it, but I know that's your parent's fault." She reaches over and takes hold of one of her girlfriend's hands.

"When you didn't know it was me and turned me down at the masquerade, I could tell how upset and sorry you were, because you're kind like that, you don't like hurting people, and hate it when you do. You read to little kids at the library, and put up with a lot of my nonsense…"

"Luz…" 

"Hup up." Luz stops her with a finger on her lips. "Not done." She smiles, pulling away her finger and Amity frowns, but remains quiet. "As far as loving goes, someone who wasn't wouldn't always be running their hands through my hair the way you do, or take care of me when I'm throwing up 'cause I eat all kinds of weird things I'm apparently allergic to, and try so hard to recreate my favorite food for me, or hold me for hours while I'm a sobbing mess. So, yeah, that's crap!" Luz looks at her sternly. "You ARE kind and loving and you deserve everything," she finally finishes, squeezing her hand.

Amity is biting her lip and getting teary again. She only just manages to keep them from falling and wipes at the few that have gathered in the corners of her eyes with her free hand.

"Well, I don't want everything…," she finally managed to get out. "Just you." She squeezes back.

"You already have me, amor," Luz tells her with a bright smile.

Before Amity can say anything else a loud sob makes them jump and look over their shoulders.

Gus, Willow, and the twins are standing a few yards away and Emira is biting her lip, trying to stifle her crying while Gus is openly sobbing into Willow's shoulder while she pats his back and Edric looks a little choked up as he stands there awkwardly holding a tray of uncooked food. 

"How long have you been standing there?!" Amity screeched, face almost purple all the way to her ears, and Luz has also turned a bright shade of crimson at her friends bearing witness to this, supposed to be, very, very private moment. 

"Since… Amity... said she didn't deserve Luz's love!" Gus helpfully cries before going back to sobbing into Willow's shoulder. 

Edric shuffles his feet awkwardly in the sand.

"We thought you'd hear us coming and stop talking, but then you didn't and…," he trails off, unable to look at his baby sister or her girlfriend. 

"Then we couldn't interrupt…," Emira sniffles, wiping at her eyes, moved to tears by what she'd just witnessed.

"Sorry…" Willow grimaced, still consoling Gus.

"Well, this is awkward…," Luz mumbles, scratching the back of her head.

Edric clears his throat, gaining everyone's attention.

"Why don't we get cooking?" He offers with an awkward smile and walks over to the fire pit, Emira nods and follows him, still wiping at her eyes.

"I'm gonna just… take care of this…" Willow leads Gus away from the group.

"It was so beautiful!" They hear his muffled cry.

Amity buries her face in her hands and groans loudly.

Luz pats her back.

"Me too…"

The awkward air hanging around the beach eventually disappears once the food is done and they all fall into easy conversation as they eat.

Luz sticks to the foods she knows, but the rot dogs are calling her name and she picks one up when her girlfriend isn't looking.

Luz holds up a rot dog… it looks so good... but she knows the bun is bramblewheat bread…

Just a bite wouldn't hurt…

Before she can get it in her mouth Amity slaps it out of her hand into the sand.

"No, Luz!" she scowls and Luz pouts while the twins snicker at them.

"Still thinks she's kind?" Edric mock whispers and Amity turns red, this time a combination of embarrassment and anger.

"She's allergic!" she barks at them, and they only howl with laughter.

When the food is gone, the sun is starting to dip toward the horizon and Luz jumps up, excited.

"I'm going to go get the cake!" she declares before turning and running toward the house.

"What kind of cake is it?" Amity turned to her siblings questioningly. Ed shrugs.

"Dunno, we put Luz in charge of the cake," Emira says with her own shrug.

"So, hopefully, no bramblewheat," Willow chuckles. Gus makes a face.

That catches Amity's interest. There's no telling what Luz has prepared.

Luz comes back a few minutes later with the white box and sets it on the small table they brought out.

She unboxes it to an appropriate chorus of 'oohs' and 'ahhs".

With Lilith's help, it actually came out quite beautiful. 

The white icing is smooth as glass with a lip of smoothly piped icing keeping the jam filling on top from sliding down the sides.

"Oh, it's beautiful, Luz!" Willow praises and Luz puffs out her chest. Sure Lilith helped, but Luz wanted to make it, so she had the elder Clawthorne walk her through every step, though maybe Lilith went back and smoothed the icing that may have been a little chunky when Luz was finished.

"Thanks, I made it myself." She smiles proudly and Amity's look of awe that had been trained on the cake is now on her instead.

"You made this?" Emira asks, bewildered. Edric also looks impressed. 

"Lilith helped me some, she's a crazy good baker, but, yeah!" She beams. "The Redstone bakery was closed so I couldn't get a thornberry cake anywhere else."

"It's thornberry?" Amity is still looking at her amazed.

"Well, yeah, that's your favorite," she says casually. "Those were not easy to get…," she mumbles, unconsciously reaching up to touch the bandage on her forehead. In the back of her mind, Amity makes a note to ask her about that later.

It amazes Amity how easily Luz can just do these things that mean so much to her and just shrug it off like it was expected. She's starting to get misty-eyed again, and she is adamant that she's not going to cry for a third time today, despite how determined Luz seems to be to make her. The twins seem to sense this.

"Well, let's eat this bad boy!" Edric calls.

The assembled witches then quickly notice something though.

"What are those?" Gus is the first to ask, pointing at the fifteen little pink candles Luz has stuck on top.

“They’re candles…” Luz blinks at the cake and then back up at everyone else who is looking at her strangely.

“Yeah, but why did you put them on the cake?” Willow asks what everyone else is thinking.

“Oh! I guess you guys don’t do that, huh? It’s a human tradition. Usually, you put a candle for every year you are, and then you blow them all out and make a wish,” Luz explains to the gathered witches. “It's just that your birthday is supposed to be… well, magical,” she chuckles to herself. “So the belief is if you make a wish on the candles it’s more likely to come true.” She shrugs. “I can take them off…,” she starts.

“No!” Amity almost shouts as Luz reaches for the little pink candles. “No, leave them... I do have a wish I want to make,” she says quietly and smiles.

Ed and Em smile at each other and twirl their fingers, and pale, blue spell circles appear before the candles light up in a flicker of flame.

Amity seems to think for a second, eyes closed before they open and she blows them out. Willow cheers and Gus waves his flags excitedly, and they make little whipping noises.

"Whoo!" Ed whoops and Emira leans down to press a kiss to the top of her sister's head, making her cheeks pink.

"Cake time!" Luz grins and starts cutting it up, humming to herself, unaware of Amity watching her with that same small smile as she does.

Luz hands Amity a piece as she sits back down next to her.

"Is it any good?" Luz looks around nervously as everyone takes a bite. 

"I think this is the best thing I've ever eaten…," Emira mumbles in amazement and Edric just stuff's more cake into his mouth.

"It's fantastic, Luz!" Willow praises and Gus nods, following the older boys, lead, trying to shove more cake into his full mouth.

A delighted hum at her side makes Luz look at Amity who looks absolutely smitten by the dessert and Luz grins. Amity catches her gaze and her cheeks pink but she is smiling so hard she can't stop it.

"It's amazing, Luz," is all she can say. There are so many words but none of them do what she's feeling justice.

She doesn't think she'll ever get used to this feeling that consumes her entire being when Luz is near, and she really doesn't want to.

Between the six of them, all that remains of the cake are some smears of icing and crumbs. The sun has set as they move back into the house so they can give Amity their gifts.

Gus proudly presents her with a book he found. 'A witches guide to humans'.

"I thought this might come in handy for you. It's got all kinds of facts about humans," he explains.

"I am both intrigued and mildly offended by the implication that I'm an animal from the wild…" Luz makes a face at the book and Amity grins. The twins just laugh at her.

"You can be pretty wild…," Willow supplies helpfully.

"Fair" 

"Thank you, Gus." Amity smiles at the younger witch, who grins.

"Here, Amity." Willow smiles, handing the other witch a potted plant. Their flowers with wide, pure white petals.

"It's an Emoticanthea plant. Also known as…"

Amity reaches up to touch one of the flowers and they all suddenly shift to a bright sunny yellow.

"Mood flowers," Willow laughs and Amity grins at them. 

"Oh, that's cool!" Luz breathes, leaning in close to look at it. Amity glanced at her and smiled. the flowers change to a deep fuchsia and Willow giggles as Amity whips her hand away from the petals. 

"Thank you, Willow," Amity says, cheeks pink. This was a dangerous plant when Luz was near.

"Oh!" Luz digs in her pocket and pulls out the small dark blue wrapped gift. "Here Amity, this is… it's from Lilith, but she said only if you want it." She holds out the present.

Amity hesitates.

She wants to forgive her old mentor, she does. She's just afraid of being hurt again. She trusted Lilith and she used her to cheat. She wouldn't say her pride wasn't stung by the fact that she hadn't thought she could win under her own power. Though now the idea of trying to beat Luz in a witch's duel is completely ridiculous to her.

"Taking the gift doesn't mean you have to forgive her," Luz says after a few seconds. "She's trying…" 

Amity nods and takes the package and pulls away the paper. She opens it and her eyes go wide.

"Whatcha get?" Edric leans over, trying to see into the open package.

Amity pulled out a necklace.

It looks like a large coin made of carved stone, with runes etched into the surface around it and they glow a faint pink in Amity's hand. All the witches in the room look shocked, so Luz knows she's missing something.

"What is it?" she finally asks, tilting her head curiously and glances around at the others.

"It's a power amulet…," Amity mumbles numbly. 

"A what?" Luz is as confused as ever.

"A power amulet," Willow says. "Their ancient magic artifacts. They're incredibly rare, you wear it, and over time it absorbs power from you to store. So if you're in danger or something you can use up all the stored power in the amulet to cast a much more powerful spell," she explains.

"Oooooh" Luz looks at the stone coin hanging from a braided cord in a whole new light. "Magical present," she mumbles with awe.

"Wow, Mittens, that's some gift." Emira stares at it wide-eyed.

"Yeah, I've never seen one before, just pictures in our textbooks," Edric agrees.

Amity thumbs the coins gently. Willow is right, as far as anyone knows there are very few power amulets remaining in the boiling aisles, full-grown witches spend years of their lives searching for power amulets in vain. Where did she even get it, and to just give it to her?

Amity doesn't know what to think.

For now, she slips it back into its box and nods, saying nothing.

"Didn't you guys get her anything?" Luz turns to the twins, in an effort to break the sudden tension in the room; it works.

"The party is our present," Emira says.

"Yea, and what's with the accusations, you didn't give her anything." Edric sticks out his tongue.

"Luz doesn't need to get me anything, she's done enough." Amity is quick to jump to her girlfriend's defense. It's true though, Luz has done so much for her, she doesn't need more.

"Well, I didn't buy you anything," Luz admits. "But I do have a gift for you." She grins excitedly. "We're going to have to go back outside though." 

She and Edric carry the two large boxes she brought back out to the beach while everyone else follows in the dark.

Luz sets it down and starts digging through it, buzzing with excitement.

"You guys don't have this on the Isles, so I thought this would be perfect to celebrate your birthday!" Luz says to Amity, grinning wildly.

"It's not going to explode is it?" Amity asks with a laugh. She finds herself asking this question much too often ever since meeting Luz, she's mostly joking though.

"Actually, yes." Luz grins, and that grabs everyone's attention. 

The twins look absolutely giddy with excitement while everyone else looks very concerned by her answer.

"What is it?" Amity asks, suddenly worried.

"Patience, mi amor." Luz smiles deviously as she pulls some long tube-shaped things from the box and moves away to stick them in the sand at the water's edge. She lines up several and turns to them.

"Ready?" she asks, and her grin couldn't be brighter, so against her better judgment, Amity nods.

"Yes!" The twins shout.

Luz pulls out a fire glyph and taps it. 

She holds the flame up to the bottom of the tubes and a sizzling sound fills the air. They watch the small sparks travel up toward the bottom of the tube and suddenly it erupts, shooting into the sky, making everyone jump.

It climbs higher and higher before suddenly exploding in a bright wash of colored lights.

"Wow!" Gus shouts, Edric and Emira whoop, while Amity and Willow watch in amazement.

Luz runs down the line of tubes and lights them and the air is filled with explosions and colors of varying patterns.

When the last ones die down she turns to the witch's who are still staring up at the sky in wonder.

"What was that!?" Gus turns to her and he's still grinning.

"They're called fireworks," Luz says. "You shoot them off at celebrations and stuff."

Edric is suddenly digging through one of the boxes, excited, and pulls out a package of long, hand-sized tubes. They're significantly smaller than the ones Luz just set off.

"What are these?" he asks, turning to Luz

"Oh, those are Roman candles." Luz takes them and opens it, handing him one. "Here…" she directs his arm out toward the ocean and lights the fuse. It sizzles for a few seconds and then a flaming blue ball shoots out of the end of it. He's startled at first but then grins as they continue to shoot out the end at intervals, making a puffing sound as they do. 

Luz hands one to everyone. 

"Just light the fuse." She shows them, and then they're going off everywhere.

"This is awesome!" Gus says and Willow laughs in agreement. 

Amity's face is alight with astonishment as she watches them shoot over the ocean and Luz is smiling as she stands at her elbow, watching. 

"In the human world people like to have roman candles fights," she says.

"What's that?" Amity turns to her.

"People shoot them at each other." 

Upon hearing that, the twins turn to each other with wicked grins and suddenly brightly colored flaming balls are whizzing back and forth across the beach, and then everyone is running and shooting, shrieks of laughter echoing everywhere.

When they've used them all up Luz shows them some of the other items in the box and the twins are delighted by the pen missiles and their loud screeching sounds as well as the smoke bombs. If they pocket a couple for later use, no one notices.

Luz explains the mechanics and then everyone is digging things out of the box and the beach is awash with pops, explosions, and bright colored lights. Luz digs out a small box and trots over to where Amity is sitting in the sand, watching the other four set off different things.

She plops down beside her and smiles as she pulls two long sticks out of the box and hands one to her.

"I think you'll like these, they're called sparklers," she says and lights it and it begins to pop and crackle, throwing off sparks.

Amity jumps at first but when the sparks cause no pain, relaxes, smiling. She doesn't think she's stopped smiling all day.

"So, you like it?" Luz asks after a few moments of comfortable silence. 

"I love it." Amity turns to her and Luz can see the joy that lights up her entire face, and she feels incredibly proud of herself. "This… everything, it's all just been so amazing," Amity says, leaning into her and Luz wraps an arm around her back and squeezes. 

"I'm glad." Luz is grinning back.

Now that it’s dark, the beach is getting cold, and that's a fine excuse for Amity to sit as close to Luz as possible, not that she really needs one.

Luz touches her sparkler to Amity and it lights.

"Watch this." She quickly twirls it around and Amity can see the word 'Luz' trace through the air, following the motion.

She reaches out and flicks her own wrist and her name traces through the air, making her giggle, which in turn makes Luz laugh. 

They sit there, flicking out different shapes and words as they work through the box of sparklers. 

Luz draws a heart in the yellow light before her sparkler dies and If it's possible Amity smiles wider, and with the last dregs of her own, she flicks her wrist and the words 'i love you' are traced in the air in bright light before it fades away, leaving them in the dark. 

The next thing Luz knows is Amity's hand on her cheek, turning her head and then her lips are on hers.

Everyone else is too preoccupied with watching the lights and colors of their fireworks to notice them.

They empty one box and decide to save the other for tomorrow night as they pack up and head inside, it's nearly frigid out now.

It's late and everyone is partied out. 

They say their goodnights and make for the rooms they've been given for the weekend.

Amity walks into her room after brushing her teeth and sees a second bag sitting on the bed that is not hers. Before she can go ask anyone, Luz walks in and freezes upon seeing her.

"Did you need something, Luz?” She turns to her girlfriend.

"No, just… the twins said this was my room…," she trails off and Amity blinks before scowling and stomping over to the doorway, past Luz, and sticks her head into the hall.

"Edric, Emira!" she yells and somewhere in the house, they hear loud snickering and the sound of running feet.

Amity growls, rolling her eyes before pulling her head back into the room.

"This is my room and they know it," she grumbles.

"Oh, well Gus and Willow are in the other two rooms. I can go sleep on the couch," Luz offers.

"No," Amity says, and the tone leaves no room for argument. "You can stay here, we've slept in the same bed before," she reminds, closing the door.

"I know, I just didn't want to…" Luz makes some vague hand gestures. "...assume anything," she finally says with a shrug.

"You're fine, querida," Amity says, kissing her cheek, and Luz smiles. She'll never tire of that word coming from Amity's lips.

"I'm gonna go change in the bathroom." Luz hooks a thumb over her shoulder and goes to dig through her bag, pulling out some clothes and dashes out of the room.

Amity changes into her own nightwear and crawls under the covers.

She reaches over and pulls the book Gus gave her out of her bag and starts flipping through it.

It has a lot of interesting things but some of them sound so outlandish she’s not sure if it’s fact or not. Luz is kind of strange at times. Always in a good way, but strange nonetheless.

She’s been flipping through it for a few minutes when the door opens and Luz comes back in wearing her shorts and a tank top. 

“Is that the book Gus gave you?” she asks, stuffing her clothes into her bag before crawling into bed and snuggling into her side, draping an arm across her waist and resting her face on Amity’s arm to look at the pages.

“Mhmm” she flips a page.

“Well, what does it say? Should I have a tail or wings?” she asks laughing. “Cause I’ll feel cheated if I should.” 

Amity chuckles at her.

“No, no wings,” she says.

“Aww…,” she says sadly and Amity rolls her eyes.

“It says you shed your skin twice a year… do you?” Amity looks at her curiously.

“Not last I checked…” Luz grinned up at her.

“Spit acid venom when threatened…” Amity can barely read it with a straight face and Luz chokes on her laughter. The more they read the more ridiculous it gets.

“Where do they come up with this stuff?” Luz snickers and Amity grins.

“Well, I know you can’t glow in the dark…,” Amity says reading another line.

“No, but how great would that be?!” Luz lights up at the idea and Amity just laughs, finally closing the book and setting it on the bedside table. 

“For you, that would be perfect,” Amity agrees, shuffling to lay down. She presses a brief kiss to Luz’s grinning mouth. “Goodnight, Luz.”

“Night!” 

She draws a spell circle and the candles go out, casting the room in darkness.

She rolls onto her side and Luz quickly sucks up to her back, snuggling into her 

They’re quite a while but Amity keeps shuffling around like she’s uncomfortable. 

“You okay?” Luz mumbles after a while. 

There's a pause.

“Yeah…”

Luz frowns in the dark.

“You sure?”

Amity pauses, thinking. There's something she wants but feels embarrassed to ask even though she knows that’s silly.

She mumbles something that Luz can’t quite hear.

“What?” she asks, and Amity sighs silently to herself.

“Can I… be the big spoon?” she mumbles and feels her face heat up in the dark, especially when she feels the hot breath from Luz’s laugh on the back of her neck.

“Of course, mi amor” she moves her arm and flips over and Amity is quick to turn and wrap her arm around Luz, her face buried in between her shoulder blades and she hums contentedly at the warmth and earthy smell she’s come to associate with the human, happy as she gets to hold Luz for a change, and pointedly ignoring her girlfriends knowing giggling. 

They’re quiet again for a long while, Amity is nearly about to drop off before she feels Luz’s hand on hers in the dark.

“Hey…”

“Hmm?” Amity hums drowsily, eyes closed. 

“It’s midnight,” Luz says and were she more awake she would be able to hear the glee in those words.

“And?” The word is a sleepy, half mumbled slur, and Luz feels the word as much as she hears it with Amity’s face pressed into her back.

“Happy birthday, Amity.” The hand on hers squeezes gently.

That brings her back to full consciousness.

She just squeezes Luz tighter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, only the good stuff.

**Author's Note:**

> this will be in 2 parts, probably. Cause editing 8000+ documents is a pain and makes my eyes hurt


End file.
